


An Introduction to the Union of Planets

by mechanonymouse



Category: Original Work
Genre: In-Universe Meta, Treat, WB: Planetary cultures (Original Work - Pulp SF) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 21:09:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18169901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechanonymouse/pseuds/mechanonymouse
Summary: The planets that make up the Union are as different as the species that dwell on them.





	An Introduction to the Union of Planets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Quillori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillori/gifts).



The planets that make up the Union are as different as the species that dwell on them.

There is distant Eu, the furthest from any other planet in the Union. Eu is a gas giant orbited by ten moons and eight satellite stations, one for each environment of the other eight planets of the Union. Originally the moons of Eu were bases for the majority of the species of the Union but the Rikto began strip mining the moon they had made their base. Which the Reun viewed as desecration and banned other species from setting up permanent residence within their system. The long lived Reun fly through the skies of Eu and dive into its methane oceans curiosity always pushing deeper them until they can no longer tolerate the pressures or have to surface to swallow gulping mouthfuls of nitrogen rich air. Directions on Eu are always three dimensional and the landmarks never in the same place. Modern fixed directions point to the positions of the artificial satellites in geostationary orbit but customary, and everyday, directions refer to the relative positions of the moons and stars or to where a floating platform was when the speaker last saw it. The platforms are massive things that the Reun build to house technology, provide places to gather and for commerce and to shelter from the massive storms that can last ten years or more. Their position varies constantly depending on air pressure, wind speed and the tides. The oldest and largest float freely but most are crewed constantly and steered to maintain a more consistent pattern and prevent collisions. Reminiscent of stingrays, the Reun reproduce by laying a large clutch of eggs in the methane oceans in designated nursery areas which are tended and protected by nursery workers until the eggs hatch at which point the infant Reun are herded in to a school by teachers who care for them until they are adults. It takes less than two Reun years for the young Reun to reach physical maturity but more than one hundred for them to reach mental and sexual maturity, during which time they gain increasing independence. The most likely Reun to be serving on a Union spaceship or station are young Reun 75 to 150 Reun years old, an age at which it is difficult for most species to differentiate between mentally and sexually mature adult Reun and teenage Reun. Long-term sexual relationships are unheard of among the Reun who do not form romantic bonds but instead settle into intense platonic relationships in their 200 to 300 year as they settle into adulthood.

Next closest is Mali, a beautiful ocean planet of blue seas and skies with an oxygen rich atmosphere and less than 5% visible landmass made up of white sandy beaches and tropical forests. Its deadly seas force the Minati into the air, their fine feathered wings carrying them safely above the water even while they sleep on their long journeys between the few specks of land. Like Eu their world is unsuitable for most of the other species in the Union, so Mali is orbited by eight satellite stations. The Minati love their small forests but all attempts at increasing the available land have been thwarted by their predators the Rikan, who pull piers down into the sea and damage embankments in their attempts to get to their Minati prey. The beaches may be beautiful but to venture within five standard units of measurement from the shore is deadly. Unlike the Rikan, the Minati are primarily herbivores occasionally supplementing their diets with insects. Seaweed from the Mali oceans is a rare and expensive delicacy. A more modern and less risky delicacy is seaweed from Tinkar. Like the birds they are reminiscent of the Minati are egg laying, building their nests high in the forest canopy. A single nest will be home to up to ten adults Minati and their flock’s offspring. Childcare duties are split evenly through the flock and a large, varied flock is encouraged for well rounded offspring. The Rikan are believed to be intelligent but all attempts to communicate with them have failed and the last three Tinkaran diplomatic teams have disappeared without trace.

Tinkar is an ocean planet, this time with no surface landmass and a volatile and variable weather pattern. It high carbon dioxide atmosphere is as inhospitable for the majority of the species in the Union as Eu. The Tinkarans are one of the oldest members of the Union. A peaceful species who are dedicated to exploration, they are the first species in the Union most visitors come in contact and the most strange to them. Tinkarans are a fully aquatic invertebrate species with ten fully prehensile limbs that they use interchangeably. On planet to space shuttles and mixed use ships and stations they wear a transparent life suit that shapes around their bodies constantly recirculating water. As a species they are skilled navigators, like the Reun all directions on Tinkar are three dimensional but unlike the Reun the sea floor allowed the Tinkarans to develop a fixed frame of reference early. Their strict pledge of nonviolence makes Tinkarans the prefered diplomats of the Union and their interest in exploration means there are always Tinkarans ready to sign up to speak with new species. To every planet in the Union the Tinkarans have found something to export that is seen as a delicacy, a luxury, or an expensive necessity. They even sell liquid lava to icy Thuron and ice to firey Velus.

Thuron is a moon of a gas giant similar to Eu. It is one of fifteen natural moons orbiting Uron, five of which are habitable to Union species and Uron is habitable to the Reun so only two space stations orbit Uron. Even in the heat of summer only the equatorial regions of its icy surface begin to melt, triggering avalanches, glacial collapse and iceberg calving into the temporary equatorial sea. While the barely above freezing temperatures make the summer the most tolerable season to visit Thruon for most Union species, it is the most dangerous time of year. The hardy Yenai retreat to their ice caves to weather out the heat of the season. The Yenai are a warlike species who fought with each other over the scarce resources of Thuron almost to the point of extinction before a Tarnaki probe landing focused their aggression outwards. The Tarnaki and Yenai fought a hundred year war which spurred the technological advancement of the Yenai from a feudal society when the Tarnaki probe landed to their current light-speed capable society. The truce between the Tarnaki and Yenai was negotiated by the Tinkarans 500 standard solar cycles ago but the Tarnaki still distrust the Yenai and their base on Theon, one of Uron’s moons, is the least populous of any of their presences on other Union planets. Now the Yenai focus their territorial instincts on protecting the safety of the Union, all adult Yenai serve a stint as a security officer on a Union ship or station before pursuing their own interests and the Yenai have the only standing army of the Union planets. The Yenai engage in ritual combat on a cycle that seems instinctive for them and impenetrable for the other species of the Union. For Thuron citizens on Turon or Yenai operated ships or stations trial by combat is allowed and to not opt for it is to become a pariah.

The Tarnaki inhabit fiery Velus, the closest planet to their sun Shoni. As two bipedal species the Yenai and Tarnaki couldn’t be more different. The Yenai are squat and have a thick triple coated fur in light blues, greens and greys. Mostly solitary they prefer to live in small groups of immediate family no bigger than twenty or alone. The shortest recorded adult Tarnaki stood 2 standard units of measurement tall and they are typically slender. The Tarnaki are gregarious and prefer to live in large social groups no smaller than fifty. These groups tatoo their affiliations on their scaled skin. The Tarnaki sail the ever flowing magma of their fiery world in boats that glow golden with the heat. Nothing on Velus is ever fully frozen but during the summer even the Tarnaki can’t tolerate the equatorial regions. Velus orbits Shoni every 29 Velusian days and the equator is unpassable for 10 of those days. Velus is inhospitable to all other Union species bar the Rikto and for most species even space stations orbiting the planet are uncomfortable. While the Tarnaki pine for molten seas of Velus while away, they comfortably tolerate temperatures far below the temperature on Velus and far less harsh environments. Without their current technology life on Velus was incredibly harsh trapping them at a hunter-gatherer society. Their initial space contact was when a small population were collected from Velus by the Metran and used as slaves to work their early nuclear powered space ships. Eventually the Tarnaki slaves overthrew their Metran masters and returned to Velus with the Metran technology.

The Metran, are a fragile species prone to epidemics and famine. Despite having intra-solar system travel before the Tarnaki had developed their own means of writing or the Yenai emerged as a species, it is only in the last 100 standard solar cycles that the Metran have developed interstellar travel and joined the Union. Their planet Estele is a mild planet with approximately 50% surface land mass and a stable climate, only the Reun cannot comfortably live in their atmosphere and with Uron in the same solar system the Reun choose not to have a space station in orbit above Estele. Neither the Tarnaki nor the Yenai maintain diplomatic compounds on Estele or space stations above Estele. It is hard for the Tarnaki to deal with the newly joined Metran but to blame the current Metran civilisation for the Tarnaki’s enslavement would be unkind. The Metran population has collapsed to less than 500 on five occasions since the Tarnaki overthrew their masters. Provided they receive appropriate nutrition and aren’t exposed to any infectious agents the Metran are long lived. This is lucky as they have four genders and a convoluted method of reproduction. The first gender parent produces eggs, which they deposit into the second gender parent. The second gender parent combines the eggs with a second cell that adds their DNA to the eggs and surrounds the eggs with a protective barrier. The third gender parent produces sperm which they deposit into the fourth gender parent. The fourth gender parent deposits the sperm with a fluid necessary to break the protective barrier around the eggs - which also changes the DNA of the sperm to a mix of the third and fourth gender parents - into the second gender parent. The second parent then incubates the fertilized eggs. Throughout the pregnancy the number of viable eggs reduces from six to ten when the pregnancy is confirmed to an average of one at the end of the year long pregnancy. The second and fourth genders are only receptive for a ten Estele day period per Estele year and despite the best efforts of Metran and Union fertility experts no way has found been to increase this nor has any means of reducing the number of pregnancies that end in stillbirth or miscarriage. Biologically, the Metran physiology is that of a primary carnivore but at some point in their evolution they moved to an exclusively herbivorous diet focusing primarily on one plant which they digest poorly but they can no longer tolerate meat. The Metran have the most highly developed study medical science and arable agriculture in the Union. Reducing the Metran dependance on a single crop is a major and well funded area of study on Estele.

Moving on from the Shoni system, the Rikto are an insectoid species lead by one hive mind. As a species they are the least sociable with other Union species, except for Siltar. The individualism and separation of the other species is considered strange by the Rikto. The Rikto live on Shiran, with all of their major structures underground. Shiran has a stable climate with approximately 80% surface landmass and a mild average temperature. Only the Reun can not tolerate the atmosphere of Shiran but the Rikto are a isolationist species who prefer not to share their planet so instead there are eight satellite stations orbiting the planet. The Rikto did not venture off planet willingly, they developed the theories for interstellar travel but didn’t practically pursue it until a Mintar colony ship crashed into Shiran proving other sapient species existed. They are not a curious species as a rule and do not join Union ships or have a large fleet of their own ships. The Rikto contribute to the Union in their desire to expand their hive and ability to tolerate a wide variety of conditions. There are thriving Rikto hives on Velus, Turon, Estele, Tinkar, Mali, and Silta where they work primarily as farmers and miners.

The final planet of the Union is Silta, home to Siltar. Siltar is a single mind made of a multitude of single cell organisms that work together. Siltar would not describe itself as a single organism but none of the organisms that make up Siltar would willingly operate independently. Like the Rikto, Siltar struggles to understand the other species in the Union and did not independently pursue interstellar travel. While Siltar understood the theory of interstellar travel, Siltar had not worked out how part of Siltar could leave Silta without breaking Siltar apart until a damaged Union ship landed on Silta for emergency repairs. A small sample of Siltar was removed from the planet by the scientists on board for study not realising that Siltar was a sentient or sapient organism. Siltar grew aboard but remained in part of Siltar without issue until the Union craft left the solar system. Realising this Siltar developed a network of space stations stretching from Silta throughout the Union that are close enough that each part of Siltar remains part of the whole. As a mutable organism Siltar’s avatars change according to the species Siltar is interacting with and the environment. Siltar can comfortably reside on any planet in the Union but does not welcome species other than the Rikto onto Silta.

But there are nine species in the Union. The last is the Mintar, the Mintar’s first interstellar craft which crash landed on Shiran was a colony ship. By the time the Mintar had developed interstellar travel their star was dying. They are the first species of the union, a homeless species who wander the galaxy, living exclusively on space stations and ships. Over their millenia long exile the Mintar have evolved to suit the vacuum of space, their long spindly limbs are ill suited to normal gravity and while they are tolerant of a wide range of temperatures and humidities if they are constant they struggle with even small fluctuations. They do not suffer from lack of exposure to the specific bandwidth of light that was produced by their star nor do their bodies require variation in light levels to trigger sleep or their reproductive cycle. Socially, the Mintar have chosen to no longer reproduce sexually. Instead sex is an enjoyable recreational activity between two or more consenting adults of whatever gender configuration and long term romantic relationships are purely for the psychological benefit of the adults involved. Children are produced in artificial wombs by mixing DNA from the sample databank to produce both the number of children needed and genetically diverse generation to contribute to the databank and society. The children are then raised in creches on their birth station or ship until they reach physical and mental maturity. A biological parent both has no say in the use of their DNA to produce a child -as all Mintar adults must submit a sample of their DNA to the databank- and is expected to have no special involvement in the child’s life. To develop a parental relationship with your child is highly stigmatised.


End file.
